The FINANCIAL — Funding for the Western Australian Drought Pilot’s Farm Exit Support program is close to being fully subscribed.
As a result, the program is being managed carefully to take it through to its full funding allocation. Further applications for the Farm Exit Support program will be placed on a register by Centrelink and assessed in the order of receipt until program funding has been exhausted.
Once the program has been fully subscribed it will be closed. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Centrelink will continue to update the public on the status of the Farm Exit Support program.
Under the measures being tested as part of the pilot of drought reform measures, the Australian Government provided funding of $1.44 million for the 2011–12 Farm Exit Support program to provide grants to farmers who had exchanged contracts and settled the sale of their properties and left farming.
The availability of limited program funds and possibility of an early program closure had been promoted by Centrelink and it was included in the program guidelines. Centrelink will be communicating with farmers about the Farm Exit Support program as it approaches full subscription.
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